Practice and warm-up routines

Start out with something less active to get things warm, then progress

00h:01m:30s

If time is a constraint, launch into something fast to speed up the process

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Use the time you have to get where you need to be

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Violin soloist James Ehnes talks about his practice and warm-up approach

Instruments:Violin

James Ehnes

Violin

James Ehnes was born in Manitoba, Canada. He began violin studies at the age of four, and at age nine became a protégé of the noted Canadian violinist Francis Chaplin. He studied with Sally Thomas at the Meadowmount School of Music and from 1993 to 1997 at The Juilliard School, winning the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music upon his graduation. Mr. Ehnes first gained national recognition in 1987 as winner of the Grand Prize in Strings at the Canadian Music Competition. The following year he won the First Prize in Strings at the Canadian Music Festival, the youngest musician ever to do so. At age 13, he made his major orchestral solo debut with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. He has won numerous awards and prizes, including the first-ever Ivan Galamian Memorial Award, the Canada Council for the Arts’ Virginia Parker Prize, and a 2005 Avery Fisher Career Grant. James Ehnes plays the "Marsick" Stradivarius of 1715. He is a member of the Ehnes Quartet.